I really hope that when you read that title in your head, you did so with the dulcet tones of Maxwell Smart Agent 86. I know I did when I wrote it. It was a comment Max used when he was so close to solving something, nearly being right about something or simply surviving a close call.

That’s what happened to our next planned trip. We missed it by that much! As I write this, it’s a Thursday evening, and we should have been sitting in the van, likely freezing, in a caravan park at Currarong on the NSW South Coast. The scheduled first service was due on Wednesday at Nowra, and then a relaxing 5 night stay near the coast in the beautiful Shoalhaven Region was calling.

But as was the case for our Alaskan Cruise and Canadian journey in 2020, Covid had other plans. With NSW going into lockdown as at 6pm on the Sunday prior, we received notice from the caravan park that same afternoon announcing our refund. I must say, the response from them has been incredible. Not only did they volunteer the refund, they paid it almost immediately. It is this type of service that will get us back.

Whilst I’m mentioning the caravan park, the booking process with them was such a pleasant experience. Clearly they weren’t overly busy when I rang and made the booking, but we were offered a choice from many options of sites with different characteristics. They even took the time to work out what we were looking for and the type of stay we wanted to have and recommended one. They had no issue with the dog, even though it was a school holiday period and their website stated dogs allowed outside school holidays only. Add that to the way they handled the Covid impact and I’m definitely making sure we get back there at some stage.

Whilst it was unfortunate, and we’re not Robinson Crusoe by any stretch, I do support the Covid call by the government, and one that I’m not for 1 minute complaining about or regretting. However it was the irony of it, that when we were about to finally get out again that something jumped in the way and put the brakes on the plans.

The positive is that the van is now more prepared. We added to our inventory with some garbage bins, a camp table, portable lighting and a new dog bed. I installed the Savvylevel^(tm), fixed the BBQ and altered the hitch height. Taking all that into account, the next trip should be a reduced effort in preparation.

Now as it turns out, I wanted to have this blog site to talk about our journeys in the van with the dog and document our experiences and learnings along the way. So far I’ve written 1 post about a trip and 2 more about not going on a trip. Definitely not my intention, but it is times like this, the challenges in even trying to get away somewhere that contribute to the overall journey of owning a van. I’d like to promise that next time I’ll be writing about a magical few days relaxing by a river or lake or the beach, just the 3 of us, campfire burning, and a beer and a wine in hand. But even I’m not that silly. You can’t predict what will happen, you just have to make the most of what you’re given and take the opportunities as they arise.

Happy travels and see you around traps somewhere!

The maiden journey is now in the bag, and it’s starting to seem like a distant memory. But now what? When we decided that we wanted to buy a van and transform our lives into this semi-nomadic lifestyle, we knew it would be challenging to make the time within our reasonably full lives, but we committed to making it happen.

Easier said than done, right? We didn’t realise at the time how difficult it was to pick the initial weekend to get away, and now we’ve done it and yearn to hook up and head off somewhere new and do it again, we are spending more energy pondering about the when, than we are about the where. So in addition to the now what question, we also face the harsh reality of when? And this is frustrating.

Between family commitments, special events and simply cleaning up and finishing jobs around the house, it is just difficult to allocate the necessary 2 days within the calendar. Working fulltime doesn’t help, but with Ros working in a school, you would think that planning days during the holidays would make it a little easier. However, working for a business that still prefers a model where staff are tied to a desk in a centralised location, which completely rules out the “work from anywhere” flexibility that modern technology strives to deliver, only adds to the conundrum we’re in.

The van is booked in for the initial service on June 30th, a Wednesday, so there will definitely be days allocated to get away across the following days. But we wanted at least to get 1 or maybe 2 other weekends away in the meantime. I actually feel like we’re letting down our fellow campers and vanners with the lack of commitment to the cause, believe me it’s not intentional.

Why would we not want to wake up somewhere different, eating breakfast and having coffee sitting under the awning watching the world go by, or strolling on a beach and coming back to a cheese platter and wine, as the world appears to have halted just long enough for us to appreciate just how good it is to be in the upright position?

Please do not take any of this as a complaint or looking for any sort of sympathy. What I am trying to highlight is that despite all the plans and good intentions of moving our lives in a slower, more peaceful direction, that there are forces working with the momentum of the day to day and our normal routines that keep pulling in the opposite direction. I suspect that like breaking a habit, this will take much time to alter the course of our existence, however, I am confident that it will happen and when it does, how good is it going to be?

But in the meantime, as we start the process of change, we will continue to plan, probably frustrate ourselves and ponder – now what?

Dates: April 23-April 25, 2021

Location: Werri Beach Caravan Park
Town: Gerringong

Preparation. This was the key focus and learning from this trip. We finally made the time and committed to taking our first trip in the new van, and set about doing all the necessary preparations. In reality this was a process that spanned weeks, not days.

Even before the van was picked up, we started purchasing the necessary items for life on the road. Wheel levelers and chocks, power cords, crockery and cutlery (this was gifts from mum and dad, thanks!), towels, sheets, blankets.

After we took delivery of the van, we continued with glasses and cups, tools, mats, power adaptors, sullage hoses, Savvylevel (awesome bit of kit by the way), toilet chemicals. I think I have listed most things, but guaranteed I haven’t such was the exhaustive length of the list.

Once we decided where we wanted to go, it was now time to ring and book a site, well 2 actually because our daughter Emily and her fiancee Tim were also coming and taking their camper trailer on it’s maiden journey. After ringing the park to book, we then needed to select a back up because they were full. TIP: book with plenty of time, not days before. Werri Beach Park was our second and available option, which we gladly took. 2 nights, 2 adults per site for $90 each site seemed a reasonable start.

The days (or more accurately nights) leading up to the Friday were frantic. Packing things in the van, making sure they were stable and won’t move in transit. Placing the heavy items down low and toward the middle, making sure not to pack the pantry too much, making sure the fridge was working. It was laborious but also quite exciting at the same time.

On the Friday afternoon of departure, I worked through the list making sure everything was packed and proceeded to hook it up to the car. This process took me a little longer than expected, but the old mantra of check it twice and check it again was at the fore of my thinking. I was confident everything was in order, threw the dog in the car and headed off.

The trip was surprisingly uneventful. Heading down Mt Ousley was my greatest concern leading up to the drive. How much brake on the van do I set, make sure I don’t use too much car brake, keep in low gear. All these things running through my head. At one stage I did shit myself thinking I had lost brakes, but then realised I didn’t have enough brake on the trailer. Once I solved that, it got a little easier. Towing downhill does involve an element of “science” but also as much feel as well. It is quite easy to feel what is happening and adjust which was a great learning from this.

Arriving on site and setting up, was also treated as a learning process. Establishing a routine will take a few trips, but we set about trying to do things in an order that made sense to us. Whilst it probably took us a little longer than expected, it still wasn’t a long time, and something we will only get better and quicker at. TIP: Make room in the fridge for beer prior to leaving home.

As far as how the weekend went? It could not have been a better start to our caravanning life. The weather was perfect. Beautiful sunny and warm days with clear cool nights. On night 2 we ran the air con for about an hour to warm up the van and after that, the warmth was captured and made for a comfortable nights sleep. Finn was probably a bit warm but he was still settled. He adapted very quickly to life in the van and it gave us confidence that we will have many wonderful trips with the van and the dog. The park itself was very comfortable. large sites and the amenities were not too far away. I have seen people complain about the distance to rubbish bins, which makes me shake my head. We had to walk at least 2 minutes to get there. Overall it was a wonderful relaxing inaugural weekend away.

Highlights of Werri Beach

• Great off leash dog beach within walking distance
• Traditional fish and chip shop within walking distance
• Large sites
• Clean amenities
• Bowling club within walking distance
• Close to Gerringong town centre
• Only a short trip from Sydney